Guess the Score has never been earlier. But then, there have not been many games as season-defining as Sunderland versus Hull City on Saturday.
Yes, I know we have said that kind of thing before, quite a lot over recent seasons, but this really is a vital test of whether our 2-1 win at Bournemouth was just a momentary, skin-of-the-teeth distraction from a Villa-style descent to the Championship – or the catalyst for instant revival.
Ask Jeremy ‘Clock Stand Paddock’ Robson where Sunderland play and he’ll say ‘Roker Park’
This replaces the original posting to take account one important update to the rules (see introduction). Any responses already received will be added as entries here …
Monsieur Salut introduces a sparkling new competition. The deadline for entries is Tuesday December 13 to give plenty of time for the prize seen above to be posted for Christmas (our many overseas readers may be interested to hear that there us no restriction on where you’d want it sent though we obviously cannot be sure of delivery times) …
And right, I have ripped up the rules. John McCormick, our inimitable associate editor, had chipped in with a great anecdote so I shall no longer require the help of other Salut! Sunderland codgers to judge entries and choose a winner. Everyone except me is eligible to enter …
Like it, the image above? Whether you remember starting your Sunderland-supporting days in that wonderful if ultimately decrepit stadium, or have only the handed-down memories of older relatives and acquaintances, Roker Park is a name that evokes pride, passion and history.
The excellent people behind a firm selling a wide range of conceptual prints and artwork, all marketed as products called Dorothy though no one there bears that name, have kindly agreed to put up one print as a prize.
During the close season we gave readers the opportunity to select their relegation favourites from the entire Premier league. Then we asked readers to select three candidates from the eight clubs which came top.
By the season’s start some 3,500 votes had been cast in our relegation poll
Hull were firm favourites to go down, with Burnley and Sunderland giving the North a full house. Watford weren’t far behind Sunderland, then came ‘Boro, Bournemouth and West Brom, followed by one hundred votes for “another club”and finally Crystal Palace, whose 67 votes (we got three times as many to become third favourites) must surely mean safety for them.
Here’s one we made earlier: no prizes for guessing which of these gents is Pete Sixsmith
Snow in South West Durham ruled out Pete Sixsmith‘s first choice of football on Tuesday evening, just up Busty Bank and along the road from him at Shildon’s own threatre of dreams, Dean Street, but didn’t stop him making his way up to Sunderland for the Under 21s or whatever number you choose at home in the cup to Notts County …
Two games and two wins.
After the triumph against all the odds in Dorset, the Under 23s, or 21s or whatever they are restored pride to the club by battling back to beat our old friends and rivals from Nottingham in a pulsating thriller of a game at the Stadium of Light last night.
Here’s something to take minds off wretched news from Out West. The e-mail from Peter Lynn – Wrinkly Pete to us – read: ‘I don’t always agree with Malcolm Dawson but his comments in the thread on one of the Bournemouth game articles struck a chord and prompted me to get this off my chest.’ He’s thinking of the new aggression detected from a section of our generally magnificent support towards our own players. We’ve all witnessed it and, while it should not be exaggerated, it is an issue worth discussing …
Monsieur Salut says: the international break makes me twitchy. No serious interest in the football, lots of time to worry about Sunderland. So let’s have a poll …
Are we, then, resigned to Jordan Pickford becoming another Jordan Henderson, red-and-white through and through but grasping, understandably, at opportunities higher up the footballing ladder than where Sunderland find themselves placed?
Do we reluctantly accept that pressure from Everton, or West Ham or someone else with pots of money to spend and heads to turn, will lure away Lamine Kone in January?
And could we live with one or both departing provided – are you listening, Mr Short? – adequate replacements are secured before anyone is let out of the door? So not just Vito Mannone fit again – though that matters, too – but people coming in, and coming in as a pre-condition of anyone else’s departure.
On Saturday, as remarked upon by everyone including Bournemouth fans, Sunderland’s support was magnificent.
I came across one little Cherries snipe about the one-minute silence being interrupted at our end and even that was simply wrong. The noise wasn’t much and came entirely from the concourse, where no referee’s whistle signalling a tribute was about to begin could have been heard and no one can have had any idea what was happening on the pitch. And even then, people near me went “shhhh …” as if the innocently noisy could hear.
